Steve Lacy Says He Doesn’t ‘Owe Anyone an Apology’ After Destroying Fan’s Camera Onstage
Steve Lacy is addressing the heated reaction he had onstage during his show in New Orleans Monday night. On Tuesday, the Gemini Rights musician shared a statement on Instagram about the incident where he was hit by a camera during his performance, saying he owed no one an apology.
“My show’s been fun as hell! Shoutout to the people not throwing disposable cameras at me and just coming to catch a vibe and connect,” Lacy wrote on Instagram. “I had a really good time in NOLA last night. I hate that the beauty of the connection I have with so many people in the crowd gets lost when something negative happens.”
He added, “I don’t believe I owe anyone an apology- maybe I could’ve reacted better? Sure. Always. I’m a student of life. But I’m a real person with real feelings and real reactions. I’m not a product or a robot. I am human.”
Lacy added that he would continue giving “my all” at his shows, but asked that people come with “respect for yourself and others.”
Video footage from the concert captured Lacy stopping the song early to say, “Don’t throw shit on my fucking stage. Please!”
Lacy then walked up to a fan in the front row, asked for the camera, and aggressively threw it on the ground as the crowd lets out a gasp. “Yeah, that’s it,” he said before walking off stage. “Peace.”
Although “Bad Habit” is typically the last song of his official setlist, at previous shows, Lacy has returned to sing “C U Girl” and “Dark Red” for an encore.
A rep for Lacy did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
“he handled that so poorly 💀,” wrote one fan on TikTok. “He needa get humbled real quick,” added another. “Nah Steve dragged it. That was so unnecessary,” added a third.
A small clip of Lacy’s song “Bad Habit” went viral on TikTok over the summer, and footage from his shows show the audience frequently singing along with just the short snippets that went viral. TikTok user @Diioorrxo_, who shared the footage of the show in New Orleans, added in another video that, “He was already mad on some shit because nobody knew the songs.”
In some footage, Lacy has shared his frustration about that.
“Why did y’all stop? Let’s get the next verse, come on,” he told the audience in one video from a gig earlier this month, pointing the microphone to the crowd before utter silence.
The TikTok virality of “Bad Habit” helped propel the song to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it’s spent 16 weeks on the chart in total. The track was recently dethroned by Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ “Unholy.”
Lacy recently spoke to Rolling Stone about “Bad Habit,” saying it was “really beautiful to watch” the song blow up on its own.
“I really had no idea that it would be [successful] like this. I don’t even have that brain. I’m just making stuff constantly, and I’m always chasing that feeling of loving an idea. And I’m really harsh,” he said, later adding, “I’m super grateful that I get to see how people interact with this music and create moments. I’ve been sitting back and trying to make sense of it all. Mad gratitude. And just super inspired.”
Lacy is currently halfway through his tour and is set to make stops in Austin, Las Vegas, Oakland, and Los Angeles through mid-November.
This story was updated at 4:45 pm on Oct. 25 to include Steve Lacy’s post.
